Business and management

Marks & Spencer

What’s French for sandwich?

THE bouncers were batting away the pavement crowds on the Champs-Elysées today, as they always do when some Hollywood starlet or teenaged idol drops in on the French capital's flagship Virgin Megastore to promote a new release. Except that the queues being herded into cattle pens on Paris's most famous avenue on November 24th were not seeking a celebrity thrill; they had come to snap up British sandwiches.

After closing down its French stores ten years ago, Marks & Spencer (M&S), a British knickers-to-sandwiches retailer, has made le come-back in Paris. Its brand-new 1,400 square metre store is located at 100 Avenue des Champs-Elysées, the city's prime retail location. Not all the range offered at its British shops is available, however: in its first Paris store, it has decided to focus just on women's clothing, especially underwear, and convenience food, including ready-made Indian meals and sandwiches.

What has got into the French? Surely, in the land of fine dining, where a sit-down lunch is a mark of a high life in the slow lane, nobody would settle for two triangles of sliced English bread? In fact, eating habits are changing. Last year, the French nibbled their way through two billion sandwiches. Once the only take-away lunchtime option was a filled baguette at the local boulangerie. Now modern sandwich and salad bars, offering bulgar-wheat salads and rocket-and-parmesan sandwiches, have sprung up in the side streets of office areas across Paris.

Since 2006, the number of fast-food meals in France has jumped 12%, whereas sit-down dining has declined by nearly 5%, according to GIRA Foodservice, a research group. It sees “an evident change of food habits among the French” towards “le snacking” at lunch time. There are various factors behind this trend: a ban on smoking in cafés and restaurants, which has discouraged lingering over lazy lunches; a less formal culture among younger office workers, keen to leave time to do other things, like shopping, during their lunch hour; and the economic crisis, which has prompted people to find cheaper ways to fill their tummies.

Not surprisingly, established retailers want a bite of this market too. The big French chains, such as Monoprix and Carrefour, have developed a brand of small city outlets, such as Dailymonop' and Carrefour City, to bring French expertise to the confection of bread triangles with filling.

As for M&S, the roaring success of its first day, filmed by breathless French television reporters and covered by all the newspapers, will have shored up its decision to open another five stores in the Paris region. The British group says it is now looking for sites to open Simply Food only outlets in the capital too. Whether the French are quite ready to start buying British knickers is another matter, but they have clearly already fallen for le sandwich.

Thank you SO much for that comment, Perguntador! I thought I was the only one who had noticed that strange obsession! Look at that comment I wrote two years ago under one of The Economist's inevitably cyclical "sandwiches in France" stories: http://www.economist.com/comment/200979#comment-200979 .

Yes, M&S was an event for the 2 million Parisians inside the Peripherique, but there could have been so many new fresh angles to cover it than the usual "the demise of traditional French eating habits".

Nobody really eats a big lunch in France unless they are high level executives. Most have a coffee and a "Jambon-Fromage" and its back to work. (Although with health tendencies now people switch to japanese sometimes)

Eating habits in France are really similar to other European countries' due to corporate life and work hours being standardized.
They have no time for breakfast and lunch, and eat a big dinner in the evening.

M&S underwear is renowned for its quality, comfort and style. No wonder the French are falling over themselves to get their hands on it.

It puzzles me however how, given TE's unquestioning advocacy globalization and that it is always pleased when foreign companies invest capital buying up British companies since "it doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white as long as it has money to invest bla bla", but blows the trumpet when British firms are successful. Its a strange combination of niaive ultra-liberal economics and contradictory nationalism.

Is this really British Cuisine or British imported Indian Food? British Cuisine has a a reputation to uphold and it is not a proud one.
The most trendy French chefs have redressed--of all things--the American Hamburger, Le Big Mac.
This proves the French are not sane in their choices, but trendy.

Fortunately for the sanity of all, the Economist, particularly in blogs, carries writing that is intended to be wryly funny. If this article did not make you grin, loaded as it is with stereotypes, I strongly suggest you indulge in a bit of fine dining, some good wine, music and sex... you'll feel a lot less angst.

Was there yesterday, a mob scene. Was after no-nonsense British knickers of the cotton five-pack variety. Bitterly disappointed to find not a sensible knicker in sight in the basement lingerie emporium. But there are plenty of frou frou frills if that's what you're after. In the food hall, had to fight my way to the fridge for bacon. Alas, no bangers.

Last time they were in France I believe M&S tried to sell own-brand "Vin de Table Français" as they were doing in the UK at the time.
Looks like they have learned a few things since that petite débâcle.

One of the reasons given for having a sandwich for lunch is "younger office workers, keen to leave time to do other things, like shopping, during their lunch hour".
Well, things must have changed.
Now, as an old fart, I do, indeed, eat a very light lunch. But when I was young and single I almost always had a sit-down, full meal at lunch. I made it my main meal. This was because restaurants, even up-market ones, have much reduced prices and fixed menu offerings at lunch, far cheaper than at other times. As a young man I did not wish to waste evenings cooking or to going out to eat. So, I would have a big lunch and then be ready to hit the evening running as soon as I got out of work.
And as for shopping, that is an onerous chore, much decreased by eating one's main meals in restaurants and, therefore managing to avoid the supermarkets and grocers'.